The invention concerns a motor vehicle windshield wiper including advanced linking means of a wiper blade onto a wiper arm.
The invention concerns more specifically a motor vehicle wiper wherein a wiper blade is attached at the front longitudinal end of a wiper arm, around a horizontal transverse axis, by means of a connector that is mounted on the blade.
According to a known method of connection of the assembly articulated on a blade at the end of an arm, the connector is elastically encased in the radial direction on an articulation rod of the blade and the front end of the arm is longitudinally hooked in order to form a hook in which the connector, once mounted on the blade, must be engaged longitudinally from the back to the front.
For reasons of rigidity and compactness of the articulation, but also for aesthetic reasons, the connector is generally housed between two lateral flanges of the blade that are joined by the articulation rod. In this way, the front end of the arm must also be housed between the blade flanges, in front of the connector in relation to the blade in order to allow the engagement of the connector in the hook of the arm.
Such an assembly, if it presents guaranties of reliability, results in being especially delicate to carry out and imposes that the blade, in front of the articulation rod, presents an opening created in the upper back of the blade in order to allow the engagement of the front end of the arm. Such an opening remains at least partially apparent after the assembly of the blade on the arm and provokes the appearance of an airflow that interferes with the functioning.
The goal of this invention is to propose a new conception of the articulation means of the blade onto the arm that allows easy assembly and disassembly of the blade, even by someone not trained. Actually, the owner of the vehicle is encouraged to regularly change his wiper blades and he can proceed in this operation in the simplest manner possible.
In addition, the wipers being visible parts of the vehicle""s exterior, it is desirable to give them an aesthetic character, avoiding, as much as possible, the discontinuity of their form. Also, the airflow that results from these discontinuities should be avoided in order to block these annoying interferences.
In order to achieve these objectives, it is proposed to integrate elastic securing means onto the connector, which is removable by simple pressure.
More specifically, this invention involves a wiper of the type described above, in which the connector contains articulation means carried by two parallel longitudinal flanges between which the blade is housed, the articulation means of the connector cooperating with the complementary means of the blade, the flanges of the connector being housed between two lateral flanges at the end of the arm. In addition, the connector contains a securing thruster, presenting a button, housed in an slot of the arm in order to longitudinally block the connector in relation to the arm, extended by a safety latch cooperating with the elastic means of locking, and removable by pressure exerted on the button.
According to the specific methods of production of the invention:
the flanges of the connector are housed via longitudinal sliding each respectively into one of two holes created in the internal faces, in relation to the two lateral flanges, of the front end of the arm;
the elastic means for locking the longitudinal blocking of the connector in relation to the arm are made up of elastic legs formed in the sides of the connector;
The elastic locking means are formed from an elastic strip which extends horizontally toward the back from the front casing to which it is joined by its front end, forming a hinge on the horizontal axis, the strip supporting the thruster of which the rod is terminated by a locking overhang able to be inserted and removed from the blade via disappearing towards the arm, through a gap of such a size adapted to fit in the blade, and via pivoting of the elastic strip in order to lock or free the longitudinal blocking of the connector in relation to the arm;
variably, the locking means are formed by a helical screw extending the length of the safety latch and pushing on a folding of the blade coming opposite to the latch.
the lateral flanges of the arm are hooked by coining and arching in order to obtain a wedging in the sides of the connector, specifically during torsion pushes;
the sides of the connector includes two cylindrical lugs on the horizontal axis which extend away from each other from the faces opposite the two sides, and which are designed to be housed in the corresponding holes in the sides of the blade while the sides are in articulation position in order to assure the articulated assembly of the connector onto the blade;
the casing in front of the connector pushes longitudinally towards the back via a rear transversal face against a front transversal face of the end of the arm; and
the external faces of the front casing of the connector are constructed in the extension of the corresponding external faces of the front end of the arm.